Sport, travel and general merchandise stores commonly sell articles for holding water and hydrating fluids for use during a variety of activities to enable the user to keep one's body healthfully hydrated, ward off thirst and improve sports performance. These fluid carrying articles are used for, and during, activities from leisurely walking and everyday use to hiking and more endurance sports or activities such as running, in-line skating, triathlons and adventure racing. These articles, depending on their configuration, provide varying levels of comfort and convenience relative to the intended activity and unique/varying activity variables.
Originally, day hikers used small to large, frame-less and internal/external frame, backpacks with shoulder straps, to carry bottles of water or other containers for holding fluids in a hands-free fashion. With the increased popularity of running and fitness, waist water carriers with fabric/foam-type holsters have become popular with the need for people to carry primarily just water and basic minimal essentials. There are many variations of belts and waist packs made for carrying fluid containers readily available as well as bladder-style packs and belts. Also there are add on fabric/foam style holsters which slide on a belt with a belt loop so you can add fluid containers to an existing belt. Additionally, hand carrying a water bottle with a hand strap or just by itself is also a popular alternative to a waist pack for some people.
Although there are many solutions for carrying hydrating fluids, they suffer from drawbacks of one sort or another. Waist bottle packs with fabric, elastic and/or foam holsters in some cases have the bottle holster fixed/sewn on the belt so that the user has little ability to customize the belt and bottle position for their own particular needs. Usually the only adjustments are sizing of the belt and in order to adjust the position of the bottle or bottles on the belt the user has to rotate the whole belt around on the waist which can be a problem if a buckle or some other feature of the belt/pack ends up in an uncomfortable or unfavorable position on the user. For a bottle pack with more than one holster, moving holster positions relative to each other around the belt so that the bottle position is specific to the fit/use requirements of the user is not possible because these holsters are generally sewn in place on the waist belt. Also the fabric, foam, elastic, etc associated with creating the holster itself and integrating it into the belt/pack in a way that is comfortable for the wearer in highly active conditions can be a source of significant unwanted weight.
Add-on holsters are usually made of the same or similar material (fabric, foam, elastic, etc.) as the above mentioned bottle pack holsters in a similar manner although a belt loop or loops are provided for threading the holster onto a separate belt. As with the above mentioned bottle pack holsters the fabric, foam, elastic, etc associated with creating the holster and belt loop panel can be a source of significant unwanted weight. Also the add-on holsters generally do not integrate well with a belt itself and tend to slide, bounce and chafe.
Although bladder packs have become smaller in size than those initially available, they are still not optimal, especially for running and sports which cause the user's body to undergo jostling or up and down movement due to discomfort associated with the size of the pack, larger sweat trapping area, chafing of shoulder/waist straps, and the inconvenience for such sports as running to drink/draw water from the tube and difficulty with filling and keeping the bladder and tubing hygienic. Some bladder/built-in reservoir packs have eliminated the drinking tube altogether, but are not practical for accessing the contained fluids on-the-go because the whole belt has to be removed/unbuckled to drink from them.
Many active people completely forgo using one of the above mentioned carriers in favor of hand carrying fluid in a bottle with or without a hand strap. But, hand carrying water can be tiring on the hand and back, and cause hand cramping and generally may hinder competitive performance levels over longer periods of strenuous activity.
In addition, the above fluid carrying methods/products heretofore known, suffer from drawbacks and disadvantages in combinations in the following areas: cause user discomfort through bouncing and chafing; lack optimal ergonomics and contouring relative to the human body; incorporate complex use requirements or components; difficulty in accessing and replacement of bottle/container while in use; unreliable retainment or security of bottle in holster (falls out); require additional mechanism or extra user step to secure bottle fully in holster; limited bottle security for a wide range of conditions; lack optimum physics of carrying mass/fluid on the human body; employ features which present obstacles to optimal athletic or general performance; limited versatility for range of uses and range of users; difficult to use and/or inconvenient to use; difficult to clean and maintain hygienically; poorly integrated features; and asymmetrically weighted when in use.